


Small Potatoes

by lunaseemoony



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Episode: s01e06 Dalek, Episode: s01e07 The Long Game, F/M, Ficlet, Fluff, Jealousy, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-24
Updated: 2015-04-24
Packaged: 2018-03-25 11:54:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,156
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3809446
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lunaseemoony/pseuds/lunaseemoony
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What happened on the TARDIS in between when Rose and the Doctor picked up Adam and when they landed on Satellite 5?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Small Potatoes

A fog of silence crept through the hallway that Rose found herself wading through in her search for her traveling companions. But didn’t that have a nice ring to it, companions, plural? Isn’t that the way it should be? Surely the labyrinth of hollow corridors that she was making an attempt at navigating were once filled with all manner of passengers at some point. The Doctor couldn’t have always traveled alone. And even a man that made every attempt at keeping the prying eyes of curious humans at arms length should have attracted a whole crew of companions to travel with, right?

Even though it wasn’t this question that had seen to her tossing and turning that night, it was still one that she’d been pondering over for a while. Why was the Doctor so reluctant to bring Adam along with them? He hadn’t said as much, but his signature snide remark was evidence enough. Rose hadn’t really thought twice about leaving him alone with the Doctor while she made a futile attempt at sleeping until she considered this thought while roaming the halls. 

Rose’s stomach eating away at her insides made the decision for her to detour to the galley. At least if she was going to be wandering she may as well do it on a full belly. Before their run in with the dalek and Van Statten, the Doctor had made Rose a strawberry jam from scratch. Remembering the taste of its grainy sweetness slathered on toast with a dab of butter had her feet shuffling towards the galley that much faster. 

“Ah, there you are, Rose,” the Doctor chirped as Rose slipped into the galley. He was alone. 

“Where’s Adam?” 

He was at the stove cooking up something, facing away from her until she poised this question. He turned his head and paused. That he needed to think about his answer didn’t bode well, Rose thought. 

She watched his nose twitch and wrinkle like a rabbit’s before he shrugged. “Dunno. He wasn’t any help making repairs so I sent him off to the library.” He was cooking up something again, and the salty starch aroma (was he making chips for breakast?) flooded her nose. “I heard an explosion a couple hours ago, so it’s possible that he found the  _laboratory_  instead. Shame, that.” 

“Doctor!” she complained as she peered over his shoulder to see what he was making. 

It might have been bordering sacrilegious to think so, but a skillet of potatoes, eggs, and an assortment of vegetables possibly had chips beat.

“What? I’m sure he’s just fine, Rose. He’s a ‘genius,’ that one. Sure he’ll manage, and turn up. Eventually.” 

His sarcasm seemed much gentler on an empty stomach. And damn him if he knew this already, she thought as her chin found itself pressing into the ball of his shoulder. There was easily enough in this skillet for two to eat a hearty breakfast. Three would be pushing it. He probably knew this, too. 

“So you thought you’d just make Adam disappear and replace him with -” she hummed in that tantalizing aroma again, “potatoes?” 

The Doctor looked down at Rose with a grin already plastered to his face. “Oh, did you think this was for  _you_ , then?” As if he’d seen right through her swaying hips and well-crafted doe eyes. 

Her mouth went agape before she fixed it to a slight scowl that was coupled with a furrowed brow. His grin only grew wider, like a tiger that had its deer in sight. 

He shoved a filled plate at her and shook his head. “Go on then. There’s a pot of tea on the table already.” 

“You’re the worst,” she teased as she sat down. 

In addition to its array of advanced appliances, the galley contained one little nook that was gently lit by the TARDIS’s golden roundels on the wall curled around a booth with a steel table. It was a small booth, with seating that was possibly upholstered long before the Doctor owned the TARDIS. The only clues Rose had gathered that it was ever upholstered in the first place were the splotches of orange leather dotting the seating around the table. Maybe the Doctor liked it this way, but the nook could only comfortably seat the two of them. Of course, he also claimed to have a dining room, the evidence of which she’d yet to find. 

“Where are we going today, Doctor?” Rose asked after he slid into the booth next to her with his own plate in tow. 

“Hmm, I had an idea, why?” 

“What year? Where is it?” she pushed further while slipping a forkful of potatoes, egg and pepper between her lips. 

The Doctor may have been the most absentminded person Rose had ever met, but this didn’t seem to affect his cooking at all. She ate quickly.

This earned her an arched eyebrow. “You’re eager today.” 

“I just wanted to give Adam a head’s up is all. Tell him what he might want to expect, you know?” 

Maybe his talents didn’t extend to his abilities to brew a proper cup of tea. But at least he managed to pair it well with his cooking. He could be given that much.

The Doctor set down his fork as his beaming grin flattened. “Oh.”

“Oh, now don’t do that, Doctor. You always get to do the introductions with me. I never know where we’re going. Now’s my chance, isn’t it? What’s wrong with wanting to show off a little?” 

“You don’t know where we’re going,” he answered truthfully with a snort. She watched his relaxed shoulders tense up and his brow wrinkle as he stabbed at a bit of broccoli on his plate with his fork. 

She made little work of downing her last bite of eggs as she made another attempt at doe eyes. This time she reached out for his hand and stroked along the thick veins in his hand with her thumb. “You could tell me, though.”

“I suppose I could.”

And before either of them could finish their cups of tea, the galley door burst open, nearly flying right off its hinges, and Adam fell into the doorway panting as he clasped its frame for dear life. He was paler than their white teacups, and sopping wet.

“You keep piranhas in your pool?!” Adam rasped in a dry breath. 

“Ooh, so you  _did_  find the library!” The Doctor clapped his hands together and beamed first at Rose, then at the soaking wet figure in the doorway. “See, Rose? Told you he’d figure it out, didn’t I?” He collected both of their plates and headed towards the dishwasher with them. “Best stop mucking about and go to get changed, Adam. We’re about to set off. Rose will show you the wardrobe, won’t you Rose?”

Adam’s eyes widened with horror. “What do you keep in  _there_?” 

“Clothes, Adam, what else?” Rose snickered. 


End file.
